ALSAR

chp 191

"Look, Ren. We've arrived. We got here faster than I thought."

Malik-san said just before we entered the city. We got off from Rudini and walked to the city gate.

The cityscape was visible from outside the gate. It seemed Vakkai had fewer buildings compared to Pedrel, but the house here looked bigger than the one in Pedrel.

Malik-san, who was holding onto Rudini's reins, was about to enter the city together with me but then, the gatekeeper asked for our identification. I showed the gatekeeper my guild card and upon seeing my red A-rank card, the gatekeeper looked visibly startled for a moment before he regained his composure again.

Well, I'm already used to this reaction though...

"Hmm...You're Red Crimson Malik?!"

"Yeah, that's right. Can we go in now?"

When Malik-san showed his card, the gatekeeper looked surprised again when he read the name written on the card. Malik-san nodded wryly upon seeing the gatekeeper's reaction. It seemed Malik-san wasn't fond of his nickname either.

Come to think of it... I've never met an adventurer who genuinely likes their nickname... Maybe some adventurers even have a second thought in getting their rank to A-rank because of the horrendous nickname...

"Yes! Please, go ahead!"

The gatekeeper stared at me and Malik-san intently before giving a salute with a snap and quickly granted us the permission to enter the city.

Well, meeting an A-rank adventurer is already surprising enough... Of course meeting an S-rank adventurer will give him an even more shock. Even if Malik-san is already retired.

Though in my case, he probably got caught off guard because my appearance didn't suit my rank.

"Anyway, let's go to a rental stable. We need someone to take care of this boy while we're in town."

"Okay. But still, Rudini is pretty fast, huh?"

"Yeah. If we have another chance to borrow a horse again, let's borrow Rudini again."

This was my first time visiting this city. I didn't have any clue about this town so I made sure to stick close to Malik-san so I wouldn't get lost. We took two breaks in between our journey but we still managed to arrive in Vakkai in just four and a half hours.

Judging from Malik-san's reaction, it seemed he also agreed that Rudini was one of the faster horses among the rental beast horses.

If Malik-san borrowed Rudini in the future, I would get to meet with Rudini again. Rudini was William's father, right? I wonder how William would react if I brought Rudini to him. Though I didn't know for sure what type of parenting the beast horse had, but if it was the type of parenting where the father was involved with the childcare, William might still remember Rudini. I should ask Chris-san about this later.

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"Alright. Let's go to my little sister's house."

Malik-san said after we left the rental stable. He gave my shoulder a pat before starting to walk.

"Umm... But isn't it almost dinner time? We might be intruding on their family time if we go now, won't we?"

Even though we arrived in this town earlier than expected, but it was already past 6 p.m. I wasn't entirely keen on visiting someone's house at this hour. Especially because Malik-san told me that his little sister already had children. They should be having dinner at this time.